FIRST PLEBEIAN Peace, ho!

BRUTUS

Good countrymen, let me depart alone,

And, for my sake, stay here with Antony.

Do grace to Caesar’s corpse, and grace his speech

Tending to Caesar’s glories, which Mark Antony,

By our permission, is allowed to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart

Save I alone till Antony have spoke. Exit

FIRST PLEBEIAN

Stay, ho, and let us hear Mark Antony.

THIRD PLEBEIAN

Let him go up into the public chair.

We’ll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.

ANTONY

For Brutus’ sake I am beholden to you.

Antony ascends to the pulpit

⌈FIFTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

What does he say of Brutus?

THIRD PLEBEIAN He says, for Brutus’ sake

He finds himself beholden to us all.

⌈FIFTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

’Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here!

FIRST PLEBEIAN

This Caesar was a tyrant.

THIRD PLEBEIAN Nay, that’s certain.

We are blessed that Rome is rid of him.

⌈Enter⌉ Antony in the pulpit

⌈FOURTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

Peace, let us hear what Antony can say.

ANTONY

You gentle Romans. ALL THE PLEBEIANS Peace, ho! Let us hear him.

ANTONY

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones.

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar answered it.

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—

For Brutus is an honourable man,

So are they all, all honourable men—

Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me.

But Brutus says he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,

And sure he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause.

What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason!

He weeps Bear with me.

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

FIRST PLEBEIAN

Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

⌈FOURTHmlk,⌉ PLEBEIAN

If thou consider rightly of the matter,

Caesar has had great wrong.

THIRD PLEBEIAN Has he not, masters?

I fear there will a worse come in his place.

⌈FIFTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown,

Therefore ’tis certain he was not ambitious.

FIRST PLEBEIAN

If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

⌈FOURTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

THIRD PLEBEIAN

There’s not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

⌈FIFTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

Now mark him; he begins again to speak.

ANTONY

But yesterday the word of Caesar might

Have stood against the world. Now lies he there,

And none so poor to do him reverence.

O masters, if I were disposed to stir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,

Who, you all know, are honourable men.

I will not do them wrong. I rather choose

To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,

Than I will wrong such honourable men.

But here’s a parchment with the seal of Caesar.

I found it in his closet. ’Tis his will.

Let but the commons hear this testament—

Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—

And they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds,

And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills,

Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their issue.

⌈FIFTH⌉ PLEBEIAN

We’ll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony.

ALL THE PLEBEIANS

The will, the will! We will hear Caesar’s will.

ANTONY

Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it.

It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;

And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar,

It will inflame you, it will make you mad.

’Tis good you know not that you are his heirs,

For if you should, O what would come of it?

⌈FIFTH⌉ ‪PLEBEIAN

Read the will. We’ll hear it, Antony.

You shall read us the will, Caesar’s will.

ANTONY

Will you be patient? Will you stay a while?

I have o’ershot myself to tell you of it.

I fear I wrong the honourable men

Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar; I do fear it.

⌈FIFTH⌉ PLEBEIAN They were traitors. Honourable men?

ALL THE PLEBEIANS The will, the testament!

⌈FOURTH⌉ PLEBEIAN They were villains, murderers. The will, read the will!